The Accusations
he Templars were assigned a massive
set of accusations by Philip the Fair. The King put his top man, Guillaume
de Nogaret, on the job, and he was very thorough with the task. (Another
man he put on the job was his Lord Chancellor, de Marigny, who later was
accused of embezzlement and withcraft and hanged). De Nogaret had successfully
drawn up accusations for many of Philip's campaigns against the King's enemies,
but this time he really went out of his way. The full list contains 127 articles,
but Barber sums them up in the following
seven groups.
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The denial of saints, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ as Saviour. It was
said that the Templars held Christ to be a false prophet and therefore no
redemption would be forthcoming from Him. This charge also included spitting
or urination on the Crucifix, trampling on it or dragging it on the ground
in mockery of the suffering of Christ.
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Idolatry, especially the adoration of a certain head called Caput (or Capud)
LVIII, or Head 58. For more information on the Caput, see the topic
The Mystical Head in the Pub.
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The renouncement of holy sacraments and omission of words of consecration
in mass.
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The belief that the Grand Master and other high officials of the Order can
hear confession and offer absolution, even thought they were laymen.
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The claims of obscene kisses of new recruits on
their mouth, navel, stomach, lower spine, or buttocks, and other charges
of homosexuality and other sexual misbehaviour.
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The Order was said to seek funds with lawful and unlawful methods and misusing
donated funds by hoarding them instead of putting them to good use.
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The Order was charged with keeping secret, heavily guarded meetings. Disclosure
of Order secrets was punishable by death.
n fairness it must be said that most
of these accusations were fabricated along the lines of previous trials against
the enemies of the King. It is also noteworthy
that even if quite a few confessions were obtained that admitted to these
charges, no such testimonies were received outside Philip the Fair's realm.
This makes it quite clear that he obtained the testimonies through torture.
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